Chicken Thighs

Star chef Paul Kahan is a big fan of chicken thighs because they have so much flavor and are so inexpensive—the best of both worlds. Here are a collection of recipes that really highlight these flavorful cuts, ranging from golden chicken thighs with charred-lemon salsa verde to tarragon chicken with spring greens. Try one of these savory recipes today!

Star chef Paul Kahan is a big fan of chicken thighs because they have so much flavor and are so inexpensive—the best of both worlds. Here are a collection of recipes that really highlight these flavorful cuts, ranging from golden chicken thighs with charred-lemon salsa verde to tarragon chicken with spring greens. Try one of these savory recipes today!

Adding a small amount of canned chipotle chiles in adobo (available at most supermarkets) makes a basic tomato sauce smoky and complex. Finishing the dish with queso blanco and chopped cilantro leaves intensifies the Latin flavor.

Chef Nancy Silverton makes the dish even better by roasting lemon slices, so they’re lightly charred, before stirring them into a piquant salsa verde. The sauce is an excellent accompaniment to these crisp-skinned chicken thighs, but it’s also great with roasted fish and vegetables.

The secret to this tangy and spicy stew by chef Deborah Schneider is the warm tomatillo-and-chile sauce; topped with creamy avocado and cool sour cream, it’s a perfect meal. Schneider sometimes swaps pork, cubed tofu, or vegetables like zucchini or mushrooms for the chicken.

At Hong Kong’s Yardbird, the cooks don’t just cut up chicken thighs to skewer for yakitori: They separate the meat into several different muscles and grill each individually. “This allows each piece to be cooked at the same speed,” says co-owner Lindsay Jang.

Though it only cooks for half an hour, this dish has the satisfying, melded flavor of a long–simmered stew. Part of the explanation is that the garlic cloves are cooked whole and then mashed into the sauce. You'll always get a more mellow flavor from whole cloves than from chopped or crushed garlic.

Paul Kahan is a big fan of chicken thighs because they have so much flavor and are so inexpensive—the best of both worlds. He braises the thighs in beer to make an excellent spring stew that he (naturally) pairs with more beer, such as Pere Jacques from Chicago's Goose Island Beer Company, a Belgian-style ale full of caramelized malt flavors.

Gerald Hirigoyen named his restaurant after pipérade, a Basque vegetable stew that combines tomatoes, bell peppers and onions; here he uses a pipérade puree to braise chicken. He says children love this lightly sweet sauce: "Anytime I'm cooking for my son and need to get him to eat something, I use pipérade and call it ketchup."

Farro is an ancient type of wheat that gives pasta a firm bite and sweet, grainy flavor. Chefs Steve Samson and Zach Pollack pair it with hearty, rustic sauces like this one, which gets its richness from quickly sautéed chicken livers.

For Roy Choi, these crispy egg-and-panko-coated chicken cutlets, generally made with pork in Japan, represent something major. “People think frying chicken cutlets is simple, but it’s like cooking pasta,” says Choi. “It’s a dish that seems remedial, but when you get it right, it changes the whole ball game. I call it the cult of katsu.”

Chef Steven Brown flavors his jerk-style chicken with a highly spiced, tangy marinade, but there’s something else that makes it so good: a serious dry-brining. “Season the daylights out of the chicken thighs with kosher salt,” advises Brown. “Really season them. Think snow. Then let them sit for half an hour.”

Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone often find inspiration in New York City's Chinatown. They transform Chinese cashew chicken into a fancy appetizer featuring the chicken "oyster"—the succulent piece of meat between the thigh and backbone, prized by French chefs.

"The chicken is braised in the oven, but you can make it in a slow cooker or completely on the stove, in a casserole," says Jenn Louis. There are many versions of tinga—the smoky Mexican tomato sauce—and this one is especially easy, calling for only a few simple ingredients.